Re: [CODE4LIB] [dpla-discussion] Rethinking the "library" part of DPLA

2011-04-13 Thread Nate Hill 
Eric, thanks-

I was actually going to post something to the drupal4lib list later today.

I intend to start developing this (I don't yet have permission from my
library, but I expect it'll be ok) and would love to do the development
simultaneously with folks at other libraries who are interested in pursuing
the idea.  I think there's value in it.

I was going to get started in Drupal 7 and was likely going to try using
something like jQuery Mobile in the theme since it'd provide some nice page
turning effects and great cross-device display, etc...
I won't get too specific now, again, I was going to move the conversation to
Druapl4lib.
But I'd love to hear from anyone interested in joining the effort who would
help steer the construction of a theme in the most logical direction...

Nate

On Tue, Apr 12, 2011 at 9:09 PM, Eric Hellman  wrote:

> The challenge I like to present to libraries is this: imagine that your
> entire collection is digital. Does it include Shakespeare? Does it include
> Moby Dick? Yes! Just because you don't have to pay for these works, doesn't
> mean that they don't belong in your library. And what if many modern works
> become available for free via Creative Commons licensing? Is it the
> library's role to promote these works, or should a library be promoting
> primarily the works it's paying for patrons to use?
>
> That's why I thought Nate's suggestions were worthy of attention from
> people who could potentially do practical things.
>
> The other hope is that if libraries can do compelling things with public
> domain content, there's no reason they couldn't do the same things with
> in-copyright material appropriately licensed. If the experience works, the
> rightsholders will see the value.
>
>
> On Apr 10, 2011, at 10:05 AM, Karen Coyle wrote:
>
> > I appreciate the spirit of this, but despair at the idea that libraries
> organize their services around public domain works, thus becoming early 20th
> century institutions. The gap between 1923 and 2011 is huge, and it makes no
> sense to users that a library provide services based on publication date,
> much less that enhanced services stop at 1923.
> >
> > kc
> >
> > Karen Coyle
> > kco...@kcoyle.net http://kcoyle.net
> > ph: 1-510-540-7596
> > m: 1-510-435-8234
> > skype: kcoylenet
>
> Eric Hellman
> President, Gluejar, Inc.
> http://www.gluejar.com/   Gluejar is hiring!
>
> e...@hellman.net
> http://go-to-hellman.blogspot.com/
> @gluejar
>



-- 
Nate Hill
nathanielh...@gmail.com
http://www.natehill.net

Re: [CODE4LIB] [dpla-discussion] Rethinking the "library" part of DPLA

2011-04-12 Thread Eric Hellman 
The challenge I like to present to libraries is this: imagine that your entire 
collection is digital. Does it include Shakespeare? Does it include Moby Dick? 
Yes! Just because you don't have to pay for these works, doesn't mean that they 
don't belong in your library. And what if many modern works become available 
for free via Creative Commons licensing? Is it the library's role to promote 
these works, or should a library be promoting primarily the works it's paying 
for patrons to use?

That's why I thought Nate's suggestions were worthy of attention from people 
who could potentially do practical things.

The other hope is that if libraries can do compelling things with public domain 
content, there's no reason they couldn't do the same things with in-copyright 
material appropriately licensed. If the experience works, the rightsholders 
will see the value.


On Apr 10, 2011, at 10:05 AM, Karen Coyle wrote:

> I appreciate the spirit of this, but despair at the idea that libraries 
> organize their services around public domain works, thus becoming early 20th 
> century institutions. The gap between 1923 and 2011 is huge, and it makes no 
> sense to users that a library provide services based on publication date, 
> much less that enhanced services stop at 1923.
> 
> kc
> 
> Karen Coyle
> kco...@kcoyle.net http://kcoyle.net
> ph: 1-510-540-7596
> m: 1-510-435-8234
> skype: kcoylenet

Eric Hellman
President, Gluejar, Inc.
http://www.gluejar.com/   Gluejar is hiring!

e...@hellman.net 
http://go-to-hellman.blogspot.com/
@gluejar

Re: [CODE4LIB] [dpla-discussion] Rethinking the "library" part of DPLA

2011-04-11 Thread Shirley Lincicum 
> To a greater degree, I think libraries ought to be putting into practice the 
> principles of our profession against public domain works. Collection. 
> Preservation. Organization. Dissemination. Take EEBO (Early English Books 
> Online), for example. Why couldn't the library community create something 
> like that? Why do we need to let Proquest own the theses and dissertation 
> market? Our profession is still not exploiting the technology and the 
> available content. Our Acquisitions Departments are really the Purchasing 
> Departments. We seemingly think we need to buy our content in order for it to 
> be valuable.
>
> --
> Eric Lease Morgan
> University of Notre Dame
>

Or, at least many of our administrators do. Many administrators seem
to follow the philosophy: "don't invest resources in building anything
locally that you can purchase from a vendor." Regardless of the value
(as determined by factoring quality and cost) of the product(s)
available for purchase.

Shirley

Shirley Lincicum
Frustrated Cataloger

Re: [CODE4LIB] [dpla-discussion] Rethinking the "library" part of DPLA

2011-04-11 Thread Eric Lease Morgan 
On Apr 10, 2011, at 12:35 PM, Nate Hill wrote:

> Karen and Peter, I completely agree with your feelings-
> But my point in throwing this idea out there was that despite all of
> the copyright issues, we don't really do a great job making a simple,
> intuitive, branded interface for the works that *are* available - the
> public domain stuff.  Instead we seem to be content with knowing that
> this content is out there, and letting vendors add it to their
> difficult-to-use interfaces.



I concur.

To a greater degree, I think libraries ought to be putting into practice the 
principles of our profession against public domain works. Collection. 
Preservation. Organization. Dissemination. Take EEBO (Early English Books 
Online), for example. Why couldn't the library community create something like 
that? Why do we need to let Proquest own the theses and dissertation market? 
Our profession is still not exploiting the technology and the available 
content. Our Acquisitions Departments are really the Purchasing Departments. We 
seemingly think we need to buy our content in order for it to be valuable.

-- 
Eric Lease Morgan
University of Notre Dame

Re: [CODE4LIB] [dpla-discussion] Rethinking the "library" part of DPLA

2011-04-11 Thread Eric Lease Morgan 
On Apr 10, 2011, at 10:05 AM, Karen Coyle wrote:

>>> I'd love to see libraries creating online conversations around  
>>> ebooks in much the same way.  Take a title from project Gutenberg:  
>>> The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.  Why not host that book  
>>> directly on my library website so that it can be found at an  
>>> intuitive URL, www.sjpl.org/the-adventures-of-huckleberry-finn and  
>>> then create a forum for it? 
> 
> I appreciate the spirit of this, but despair at the idea that  
> libraries organize their services around public domain works, thus  
> becoming early 20th century institutions. The gap between 1923 and  
> 2011 is huge, and it makes no sense to users that a library provide  
> services based on publication date, much less that enhanced services  
> stop at 1923.


Personally, I think the idea of collecting public domain works, enhancing them 
in any number of ways, and then providing services against them is a very good 
idea.

With the advent of ubiquitous globally networked computers, the idea of a book 
being bound (all puns intended) to a physical place in a particular format is 
antiquated. This is obvious. "Books are for use." 

There are many issues embodied in the idea of "unbinding" a book. User 
interface design. Computing horsepower. Functionality. File formats. There are 
also intellectual property issues. For all cases of books, all of these issues 
need to be addressed. But, for books in the public domain, the issues of 
intellectual property are more easily resolved. Consequently, the idea of 
creating a forum for the book is more easily done for public domain works. 
Copyrighted works -- licensed content -- comes with additional impediments. 

Just because public domain works are old are not reasons to not exploit them. 
Just because licensed materials are difficult to use does not mean the process 
should not be explored. 

Learn how to provide the cool services against public domain works first. They 
are easier. Get practice. Then tackle the content of the post 1923 content. For 
example, I advocate the active collection and indexing of open access journal 
articles for individual libraries. Get this process under our belts. 
Collection. Storage. Description. Indexing. Access. Once that process is done, 
tackle the licensed content. The processes should have more things in common 
than differences. 

No one said libraries should center their collections solely around public 
domain works.

-- 
Eric Lease Morgan
University of Notre Dame

Re: [CODE4LIB] [dpla-discussion] Rethinking the "library" part of DPLA

2011-04-10 Thread Nate Hill 
I'm familiar with it, and I love it.  Love the
Commentpresswork as
well.

This project addresses participation and scholarly communication (nicely),
not the interface by which you access it.  If you think about the audience
at a public library, it'd be amazingly valuable to have a whole bunch of
kids books directly hosted on your site with an intuitive URL, library
branding, a downloadbale ePub version, and a hosted version with commenting
similar to what you see in the Candide 2.0 project. I think with some user
testing you might find the commenting a little outside of the way a casual
15 year old reader might want to interact with it, but you never know.

I think the interface part is the real kicker with all of this.  If I could
just fire up the iPad, navigate to a book's page at my local library and
start reading it to my kid, that'd be amazing.  Or if I had one of those
soon to be released Google laptops running the Chrome OS, I'd be in good
shape to read to my kid.  Still, if I'm at home using Internet Explorer 6 on
my ancient laptop, I could read to my kid.  Yes, you can do much of this
with the Candide 2.0 bit, but it wasn't designed to solve the
cross-platform, cross-device, with-or-without connectivity issue, it was
designed to probe the participatory reading issue from a decidedly academic
perspective.

I'm really sorry to see that the Candide 2.0 thing stopped with that one
text.  I'd love to see that platform used for more books, with the
interfaced redesigned to appeal to a broader audience.  I think it is a
great starting point.




On Sun, Apr 10, 2011 at 12:58 PM, Owen Stephens  wrote:

> I guess that people may already be familiar with the Candide 2.0 project at
> NYPL http://candide.nypl.org/text/ - this sounds not dissimilar to the
> type of approach being suggested
>
> This document is built using Wordpress with the Digress.it plugin (
> http://digress.it/)
>
> Owen
>
> Owen Stephens
> Owen Stephens Consulting
> Web: http://www.ostephens.com
> Email: o...@ostephens.com
> Telephone: 0121 288 6936
>
> On 10 Apr 2011, at 17:35, Nate Hill wrote:
>
> > Eric, thanks for finding enough merit in my post on the DPLA listserv
> > to repost it here.
> >
> > Karen and Peter, I completely agree with your feelings-
> > But my point in throwing this idea out there was that despite all of
> > the copyright issues, we don't really do a great job making a simple,
> > intuitive, branded interface for the works that *are* available - the
> > public domain stuff.  Instead we seem to be content with knowing that
> > this content is out there, and letting vendors add it to their
> > difficult-to-use interfaces.
> >
> > I guess my hope, seeing this reposted here is that someone might have
> > a suggestion as to why I would not host public domain ebooks on my own
> > library's site.  Are there technical hurdles to consider?
> >
> > I feel like I see a tiny little piece of the ebook access problem that
> > we *can* solve here, while some of the larger issues will indeed be
> > debated in forums like the DPLA for quite a while.  By solving a small
> > problem along the way, perhaps when the giant 1923-2011 problem is
> > resolved we'll have a clearer path as to what type of access we might
> > provide.
> >
> >
> > On 4/10/11, Peter Murray  wrote:
> >> I, too, have been struggling with this aspect of the discussion. (I'm on
> the
> >> DPLA list as well.) There seems to be this blind spot within the
> leadership
> >> of the group to ignore the copyright problem and any interaction with
> >> publishers of popular materials. One of the great hopes that I have for
> this
> >> group, with all of the publicity it is generating, is to serve as a
> voice
> >> and a focal point to bring authors, publishers and librarians together
> to
> >> talk about a new digital ownership and sharing model.
> >>
> >> That doesn't seem to be happening.
> >>
> >>
> >> Peter
> >>
> >> On Apr 10, 2011, at 10:05, "Karen Coyle"  wrote:
> >>
> >>> I appreciate the spirit of this, but despair at the idea that
> >>> libraries organize their services around public domain works, thus
> >>> becoming early 20th century institutions. The gap between 1923 and
> >>> 2011 is huge, and it makes no sense to users that a library provide
> >>> services based on publication date, much less that enhanced services
> >>> stop at 1923.
> >>>
> >>> kc
> >>>
> >>> Quoting Eric Hellman :
> >>>
>  The DPLA listserv is probably too impractical for most of Code4Lib,
>  but Nate Hill (who's on this list as well) made this contribution
>  there, which I think deserves attention from library coders here.
> 
>  On Apr 5, 2011, at 11:15 AM, Nate Hill wrote:
> 
> > It is awesome that the project Gutenberg stuff is out there, it is
> > a great start.  But libraries aren't using it right.  There's been
> > talk on this list about the changing role of the public library in
> > people's lives,

Re: [CODE4LIB] [dpla-discussion] Rethinking the "library" part of DPLA

2011-04-10 Thread Owen Stephens 
I guess that people may already be familiar with the Candide 2.0 project at 
NYPL http://candide.nypl.org/text/ - this sounds not dissimilar to the type of 
approach being suggested

This document is built using Wordpress with the Digress.it plugin 
(http://digress.it/)

Owen

Owen Stephens
Owen Stephens Consulting
Web: http://www.ostephens.com
Email: o...@ostephens.com
Telephone: 0121 288 6936

On 10 Apr 2011, at 17:35, Nate Hill wrote:

> Eric, thanks for finding enough merit in my post on the DPLA listserv
> to repost it here.
> 
> Karen and Peter, I completely agree with your feelings-
> But my point in throwing this idea out there was that despite all of
> the copyright issues, we don't really do a great job making a simple,
> intuitive, branded interface for the works that *are* available - the
> public domain stuff.  Instead we seem to be content with knowing that
> this content is out there, and letting vendors add it to their
> difficult-to-use interfaces.
> 
> I guess my hope, seeing this reposted here is that someone might have
> a suggestion as to why I would not host public domain ebooks on my own
> library's site.  Are there technical hurdles to consider?
> 
> I feel like I see a tiny little piece of the ebook access problem that
> we *can* solve here, while some of the larger issues will indeed be
> debated in forums like the DPLA for quite a while.  By solving a small
> problem along the way, perhaps when the giant 1923-2011 problem is
> resolved we'll have a clearer path as to what type of access we might
> provide.
> 
> 
> On 4/10/11, Peter Murray  wrote:
>> I, too, have been struggling with this aspect of the discussion. (I'm on the
>> DPLA list as well.) There seems to be this blind spot within the leadership
>> of the group to ignore the copyright problem and any interaction with
>> publishers of popular materials. One of the great hopes that I have for this
>> group, with all of the publicity it is generating, is to serve as a voice
>> and a focal point to bring authors, publishers and librarians together to
>> talk about a new digital ownership and sharing model.
>> 
>> That doesn't seem to be happening.
>> 
>> 
>> Peter
>> 
>> On Apr 10, 2011, at 10:05, "Karen Coyle"  wrote:
>> 
>>> I appreciate the spirit of this, but despair at the idea that
>>> libraries organize their services around public domain works, thus
>>> becoming early 20th century institutions. The gap between 1923 and
>>> 2011 is huge, and it makes no sense to users that a library provide
>>> services based on publication date, much less that enhanced services
>>> stop at 1923.
>>> 
>>> kc
>>> 
>>> Quoting Eric Hellman :
>>> 
 The DPLA listserv is probably too impractical for most of Code4Lib,
 but Nate Hill (who's on this list as well) made this contribution
 there, which I think deserves attention from library coders here.
 
 On Apr 5, 2011, at 11:15 AM, Nate Hill wrote:
 
> It is awesome that the project Gutenberg stuff is out there, it is
> a great start.  But libraries aren't using it right.  There's been
> talk on this list about the changing role of the public library in
> people's lives, there's been talk about the library brand, and some
> talk about what 'local' might mean in this context.  I'd suggest
> that we should find ways to make reading library ebooks feel local
> and connected to an immediate community.  Brick and mortar library
> facilities are public spaces, and librarians are proud of that.  We
> have collections of materials in there, and we host programs and
> events to give those materials context within the community.
> There's something special about watching a child find a good book,
> and then show it to his  or her friend and talk about how awesome
> it is.  There's also something special about watching a senior
> citizens book group get together and discuss a new novel every
> month.  For some reason, libraries really struggle with treating
> their digital spaces the same way.
> 
> I'd love to see libraries creating online conversations around
> ebooks in much the same way.  Take a title from project Gutenberg:
> The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.  Why not host that book
> directly on my library website so that it can be found at an
> intuitive URL, www.sjpl.org/the-adventures-of-huckleberry-finn and
> then create a forum for it?  The URL itself takes care of the
> 'local' piece; certainly my most likely visitors will be San Jose
> residents- especially if other libraries do this same thing.  The
> brand remains intact, when I launch this web page that holds the
> book I can promote my library's identity.  The interface is no
> problem because I can optimize the page to load well on any device
> and I can link to different formats of the book.  Finally, and most
> importantly, I've created a local digital space for this book so
> that people

Re: [CODE4LIB] [dpla-discussion] Rethinking the "library" part of DPLA

2011-04-10 Thread Nate Hill 
Eric, thanks for finding enough merit in my post on the DPLA listserv
to repost it here.

Karen and Peter, I completely agree with your feelings-
But my point in throwing this idea out there was that despite all of
the copyright issues, we don't really do a great job making a simple,
intuitive, branded interface for the works that *are* available - the
public domain stuff.  Instead we seem to be content with knowing that
this content is out there, and letting vendors add it to their
difficult-to-use interfaces.

I guess my hope, seeing this reposted here is that someone might have
a suggestion as to why I would not host public domain ebooks on my own
library's site.  Are there technical hurdles to consider?

I feel like I see a tiny little piece of the ebook access problem that
we *can* solve here, while some of the larger issues will indeed be
debated in forums like the DPLA for quite a while.  By solving a small
problem along the way, perhaps when the giant 1923-2011 problem is
resolved we'll have a clearer path as to what type of access we might
provide.


On 4/10/11, Peter Murray  wrote:
> I, too, have been struggling with this aspect of the discussion. (I'm on the
> DPLA list as well.) There seems to be this blind spot within the leadership
> of the group to ignore the copyright problem and any interaction with
> publishers of popular materials. One of the great hopes that I have for this
> group, with all of the publicity it is generating, is to serve as a voice
> and a focal point to bring authors, publishers and librarians together to
> talk about a new digital ownership and sharing model.
>
> That doesn't seem to be happening.
>
>
> Peter
>
> On Apr 10, 2011, at 10:05, "Karen Coyle"  wrote:
>
>> I appreciate the spirit of this, but despair at the idea that
>> libraries organize their services around public domain works, thus
>> becoming early 20th century institutions. The gap between 1923 and
>> 2011 is huge, and it makes no sense to users that a library provide
>> services based on publication date, much less that enhanced services
>> stop at 1923.
>>
>> kc
>>
>> Quoting Eric Hellman :
>>
>>> The DPLA listserv is probably too impractical for most of Code4Lib,
>>> but Nate Hill (who's on this list as well) made this contribution
>>> there, which I think deserves attention from library coders here.
>>>
>>> On Apr 5, 2011, at 11:15 AM, Nate Hill wrote:
>>>
 It is awesome that the project Gutenberg stuff is out there, it is
 a great start.  But libraries aren't using it right.  There's been
 talk on this list about the changing role of the public library in
 people's lives, there's been talk about the library brand, and some
 talk about what 'local' might mean in this context.  I'd suggest
 that we should find ways to make reading library ebooks feel local
 and connected to an immediate community.  Brick and mortar library
 facilities are public spaces, and librarians are proud of that.  We
 have collections of materials in there, and we host programs and
 events to give those materials context within the community.
 There's something special about watching a child find a good book,
 and then show it to his  or her friend and talk about how awesome
 it is.  There's also something special about watching a senior
 citizens book group get together and discuss a new novel every
 month.  For some reason, libraries really struggle with treating
 their digital spaces the same way.

 I'd love to see libraries creating online conversations around
 ebooks in much the same way.  Take a title from project Gutenberg:
 The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.  Why not host that book
 directly on my library website so that it can be found at an
 intuitive URL, www.sjpl.org/the-adventures-of-huckleberry-finn and
 then create a forum for it?  The URL itself takes care of the
 'local' piece; certainly my most likely visitors will be San Jose
 residents- especially if other libraries do this same thing.  The
 brand remains intact, when I launch this web page that holds the
 book I can promote my library's identity.  The interface is no
 problem because I can optimize the page to load well on any device
 and I can link to different formats of the book.  Finally, and most
 importantly, I've created a local digital space for this book so
 that people can converse about it via comments, uploaded pictures,
 video, whatever.  I really think this community conversation and
 context-creation around materials is a big part of what makes
 public libraries special.
>>>
>>> Eric Hellman
>>> President, Gluejar, Inc.
>>> http://www.gluejar.com/   Gluejar is hiring!
>>>
>>> e...@hellman.net
>>> http://go-to-hellman.blogspot.com/
>>> @gluejar
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Karen Coyle
>> kco...@kcoyle.net http://kcoyle.net
>> ph: 1-510-540-7596
>> m: 1-510-435-8234
>> skype: kcoylenet
>


-- 
Nate Hill
nathanielh.

Re: [CODE4LIB] [dpla-discussion] Rethinking the "library" part of DPLA

2011-04-10 Thread Peter Murray 
I, too, have been struggling with this aspect of the discussion. (I'm on the 
DPLA list as well.) There seems to be this blind spot within the leadership of 
the group to ignore the copyright problem and any interaction with publishers 
of popular materials. One of the great hopes that I have for this group, with 
all of the publicity it is generating, is to serve as a voice and a focal point 
to bring authors, publishers and librarians together to talk about a new 
digital ownership and sharing model. 

That doesn't seem to be happening. 


Peter

On Apr 10, 2011, at 10:05, "Karen Coyle"  wrote:

> I appreciate the spirit of this, but despair at the idea that  
> libraries organize their services around public domain works, thus  
> becoming early 20th century institutions. The gap between 1923 and  
> 2011 is huge, and it makes no sense to users that a library provide  
> services based on publication date, much less that enhanced services  
> stop at 1923.
> 
> kc
> 
> Quoting Eric Hellman :
> 
>> The DPLA listserv is probably too impractical for most of Code4Lib,  
>> but Nate Hill (who's on this list as well) made this contribution  
>> there, which I think deserves attention from library coders here.
>> 
>> On Apr 5, 2011, at 11:15 AM, Nate Hill wrote:
>> 
>>> It is awesome that the project Gutenberg stuff is out there, it is  
>>> a great start.  But libraries aren't using it right.  There's been  
>>> talk on this list about the changing role of the public library in  
>>> people's lives, there's been talk about the library brand, and some  
>>> talk about what 'local' might mean in this context.  I'd suggest  
>>> that we should find ways to make reading library ebooks feel local  
>>> and connected to an immediate community.  Brick and mortar library  
>>> facilities are public spaces, and librarians are proud of that.  We  
>>> have collections of materials in there, and we host programs and  
>>> events to give those materials context within the community.   
>>> There's something special about watching a child find a good book,  
>>> and then show it to his  or her friend and talk about how awesome  
>>> it is.  There's also something special about watching a senior  
>>> citizens book group get together and discuss a new novel every  
>>> month.  For some reason, libraries really struggle with treating  
>>> their digital spaces the same way.
>>> 
>>> I'd love to see libraries creating online conversations around  
>>> ebooks in much the same way.  Take a title from project Gutenberg:  
>>> The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.  Why not host that book  
>>> directly on my library website so that it can be found at an  
>>> intuitive URL, www.sjpl.org/the-adventures-of-huckleberry-finn and  
>>> then create a forum for it?  The URL itself takes care of the  
>>> 'local' piece; certainly my most likely visitors will be San Jose  
>>> residents- especially if other libraries do this same thing.  The  
>>> brand remains intact, when I launch this web page that holds the  
>>> book I can promote my library's identity.  The interface is no  
>>> problem because I can optimize the page to load well on any device  
>>> and I can link to different formats of the book.  Finally, and most  
>>> importantly, I've created a local digital space for this book so  
>>> that people can converse about it via comments, uploaded pictures,  
>>> video, whatever.  I really think this community conversation and  
>>> context-creation around materials is a big part of what makes  
>>> public libraries special.
>> 
>> Eric Hellman
>> President, Gluejar, Inc.
>> http://www.gluejar.com/   Gluejar is hiring!
>> 
>> e...@hellman.net
>> http://go-to-hellman.blogspot.com/
>> @gluejar
>> 
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Karen Coyle
> kco...@kcoyle.net http://kcoyle.net
> ph: 1-510-540-7596
> m: 1-510-435-8234
> skype: kcoylenet

Re: [CODE4LIB] [dpla-discussion] Rethinking the "library" part of DPLA

2011-04-10 Thread Karen Coyle 
I appreciate the spirit of this, but despair at the idea that  
libraries organize their services around public domain works, thus  
becoming early 20th century institutions. The gap between 1923 and  
2011 is huge, and it makes no sense to users that a library provide  
services based on publication date, much less that enhanced services  
stop at 1923.


kc

Quoting Eric Hellman :

The DPLA listserv is probably too impractical for most of Code4Lib,  
but Nate Hill (who's on this list as well) made this contribution  
there, which I think deserves attention from library coders here.


On Apr 5, 2011, at 11:15 AM, Nate Hill wrote:

It is awesome that the project Gutenberg stuff is out there, it is  
a great start.  But libraries aren't using it right.  There's been  
talk on this list about the changing role of the public library in  
people's lives, there's been talk about the library brand, and some  
talk about what 'local' might mean in this context.  I'd suggest  
that we should find ways to make reading library ebooks feel local  
and connected to an immediate community.  Brick and mortar library  
facilities are public spaces, and librarians are proud of that.  We  
have collections of materials in there, and we host programs and  
events to give those materials context within the community.   
There's something special about watching a child find a good book,  
and then show it to his  or her friend and talk about how awesome  
it is.  There's also something special about watching a senior  
citizens book group get together and discuss a new novel every  
month.  For some reason, libraries really struggle with treating  
their digital spaces the same way.


I'd love to see libraries creating online conversations around  
ebooks in much the same way.  Take a title from project Gutenberg:  
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.  Why not host that book  
directly on my library website so that it can be found at an  
intuitive URL, www.sjpl.org/the-adventures-of-huckleberry-finn and  
then create a forum for it?  The URL itself takes care of the  
'local' piece; certainly my most likely visitors will be San Jose  
residents- especially if other libraries do this same thing.  The  
brand remains intact, when I launch this web page that holds the  
book I can promote my library's identity.  The interface is no  
problem because I can optimize the page to load well on any device  
and I can link to different formats of the book.  Finally, and most  
importantly, I've created a local digital space for this book so  
that people can converse about it via comments, uploaded pictures,  
video, whatever.  I really think this community conversation and  
context-creation around materials is a big part of what makes  
public libraries special.


Eric Hellman
President, Gluejar, Inc.
http://www.gluejar.com/   Gluejar is hiring!

e...@hellman.net
http://go-to-hellman.blogspot.com/
@gluejar





--
Karen Coyle
kco...@kcoyle.net http://kcoyle.net
ph: 1-510-540-7596
m: 1-510-435-8234
skype: kcoylenet

Re: [CODE4LIB] [dpla-discussion] Rethinking the "library" part of DPLA

2011-04-07 Thread Eric Hellman 
The DPLA listserv is probably too impractical for most of Code4Lib, but Nate 
Hill (who's on this list as well) made this contribution there, which I think 
deserves attention from library coders here.

On Apr 5, 2011, at 11:15 AM, Nate Hill wrote:

> It is awesome that the project Gutenberg stuff is out there, it is a great 
> start.  But libraries aren't using it right.  There's been talk on this list 
> about the changing role of the public library in people's lives, there's been 
> talk about the library brand, and some talk about what 'local' might mean in 
> this context.  I'd suggest that we should find ways to make reading library 
> ebooks feel local and connected to an immediate community.  Brick and mortar 
> library facilities are public spaces, and librarians are proud of that.  We 
> have collections of materials in there, and we host programs and events to 
> give those materials context within the community.  There's something special 
> about watching a child find a good book, and then show it to his  or her 
> friend and talk about how awesome it is.  There's also something special 
> about watching a senior citizens book group get together and discuss a new 
> novel every month.  For some reason, libraries really struggle with treating 
> their digital spaces the same way.
> 
> I'd love to see libraries creating online conversations around ebooks in much 
> the same way.  Take a title from project Gutenberg: The Adventures of 
> Huckleberry Finn.  Why not host that book directly on my library website so 
> that it can be found at an intuitive URL, 
> www.sjpl.org/the-adventures-of-huckleberry-finn and then create a forum for 
> it?  The URL itself takes care of the 'local' piece; certainly my most likely 
> visitors will be San Jose residents- especially if other libraries do this 
> same thing.  The brand remains intact, when I launch this web page that holds 
> the book I can promote my library's identity.  The interface is no problem 
> because I can optimize the page to load well on any device and I can link to 
> different formats of the book.  Finally, and most importantly, I've created a 
> local digital space for this book so that people can converse about it via 
> comments, uploaded pictures, video, whatever.  I really think this community 
> conversation and context-creation around materials is a big part of what 
> makes public libraries special.

Eric Hellman
President, Gluejar, Inc.
http://www.gluejar.com/   Gluejar is hiring!

e...@hellman.net 
http://go-to-hellman.blogspot.com/
@gluejar